


Institutionalized

by amiskue



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Blood and Injury, Character Death, F/F, F/M, Fanfiction, Other, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-11-04 17:59:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17902865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amiskue/pseuds/amiskue
Summary: WIP





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Growth in love comes from a place of absence, where the imagination is left to it’s own devices and creates you to be much more then reality would ever allow.”  
> ― Jamie Weise

She never wore black.  
There was no reason. To the exception that in her eyes it was a depressing color, meant to mourn someone who had died or in a less morbid case wanted to look fancy for a formal party- she never found a reason to.  
But she also never had the nerve to sneak out to GoodNeighbor all by her lonesome, knowing full well from experience the dangerous reputation it had, the number of cases the agency had gotten around here and in worst case scenario usually ending in someone getting hurt, or worse killed.

 

She was definitely on a roll tonight that was for sure.  
Walking down the isolated ally way just at the entrance of the town, leather eyes scanned the area, turning a honey gold hue under various colors of white, red and purple, and the click of her heels seemed to be the only noise bouncing from wall to wall, eventually making its way back to her chilled ears.

 

The discomfort had begun to grow stronger the closer she got to The Third Rail, sending multiple red flags through her, multiple chills down her spine; telling her 'this is a horrible idea' to which she fought to ignore.

 

"Pull yourself together, Shelby.." She quietly told herself, biting her lip and quickly noticing how white her knuckles were from clinging her jacket together. Numbing shocks went through her hand as she let go. "You're already here, leaving now will only be a waste of a trip," she told herself, looking up at the balcony above, then winced, "-Plus you already got a one time only 'mayor pass' from John earlier. Two wasted trips."

It took almost five minutes of contemplating to gain the courage to walk through the door, pushing through.  
Ham eyed her with caution her once she was inside, though didn't question it. News about Nick Valentine's disappearance had gotten the whole Commonwealth on edge. At least the half that cared.  
He stared for a moment, but tipped his hat to her, stepping aside and out of her way. Making sure to thank him, Shelby went on past.

"Well if it isn't everyone's least favorite teenager,"  
the Mister Handy snarked upon spotting her coming up to the bar; just as Magnolia began to start up another song. "- Good to see you again, Shelbs."

 

Shelby snorted, immediately mentally slapping herself afterward into enforcing a smile, "Aww, whats the occasion Charlie?"

 

"You haven't even been in here for one minute, and you're already being a pain in my arse." He chuckled, watching her take a seat and began to clean a glass for her before changing the subject.

 

"Valentine letting you do solo cases, or are you finally giving into the sweet joys of the rebellious phase?"  
Shelby froze, biting into the side of her cheek at the bittersweet reminder. "He's missing, Chuck. Suprised you didn't know."

 

This threw the Mister Handy off, pausing mid clean and eye her for a moment. "So of all places to look for your old man, you came to a bar on the shitty side of Boston-"

"Charlie, I need intel and Goodneighbor is the closest window I have to find him. So don't float there and criticize me."

"That doesn't come free and you know that."

Shelby gave him an uninterested look, lips going slack, "No- yeah let me pull out my nonexistent allowance real quick will that satisfy your needs?" She snapped, aggressively showing an empty pre-war purse. One of those small ones made just for money.

"Lose the attitude, for fuck's sake-" Charlie finally interrupted, Motioning behind her to the other resident's. "Yer gonna make me lose customer's if you continue to mouth off, and I ain't gonna remind you that you're here under the Mayor's good intent."  
Every one of them went back to what they were doing once she spun her head around. Given her history of blowing a fuse and not thinking of the consequences afterward, she should be used to the guilt by now. Sad to say she wasn't.

"You know damn well Valentine wouldn't let you speak to anyone like that, would always put you back in place if you did."  
Shelby rested her chin down on the counter and took a deep breath, and rolled her eyes, "Fuck, you might as well squeeze the lemon juice into my eyes while you rub salt on the gaping wound, huh Chuck?"

It was time's like these she wished she hadn't taken on the formers temper. Vixen was one mythic bitch, and the leftover trait had been something Nick had tried helping her control since he'd known her. The punishment of relapse being a two-week groundation. Which in her opinion gave her a one way trip to Fun Town.

Bitting her pride and forcing out words, she said the usual "Sorry, Charlie." her voice laced with obvious strain, and frustration. "Guess the lack of sleep's finally getting to my head."

Charlie stared at her for a while before audibly sighing, and cooling himself down, afterward setting down the glass and pulling out a Nuka-Cola from under the counter. Considering her eyes mirrored a curious puppy upon the sugary drink, it got her attention. Switching on to him as he spoke in a more sympathetic tone. "Ain't nothing to be apologizing for, love. A situation like this can make anyone ill-tempered." He told her, "You at least need to pay for this though. I do have a business to run here and I ain't letting you leave without getting some caps off of ya." A joke to lighten the mood.  
The only thing funny about it though was it actually made her feel worse.  
She huffed, sitting back up to pull some change from her jacket, eleven caps total; on the counter.

"So what do you want to know?"

Shelby popped the cap with just the tip of her nail, cringing at the scrape it left behind, "..Ellie slipped a name, Skinny Malone. Who and where is he?"  
The name seemed to spark a reaction out of the ol' bot; even causing him to pause in the remembrance. He spoke low, furthering Shelby's attention.  
"Malone is an old town Mob Boss. One of the dangerous ones; which is why Mayor Hancock kicked him out."

Shelby about choked on her drink, frowning upon her reply, "Must've done something really bad to be kicked from GoodNeighbor. Mob Boss or not."

 

"Yeahhh only it wasn't only something he did to piss off the mayor, it was the reputation it was givin 'em. The rest is history; but if our friend has the detective.." He hissed an inhale, shaking an optic. "I know Val is very much capable of handling himself, but there's a low chance."

It was true, Nick was able to hold his own; he proved that much training her. Though, she couldn't help but feel her blood run cold and heart drop.  
"Do," she croaked with a hitched inhale, "Do you know where Malone could be?"

"From hearsay? The Commons. Park Street Station to be exact."

"That was the last thing I wanted to hear you say, god damn you.." A small pause, then a hard swallow. "..Thank you, though. That helps."

Charlie stopped her before she could get up to leave, tapping the counter, "Word of advice though, sweetheart. Do not go alone. Get in contact with our mutual friends and for Christ' sake don't underestimate Malone. Pack a lot of heat if you plan on getting Valentine out alive."

"That's the golden plan." It felt her head was going to explode. "See you, Whitechapel." Then, right as Magnolia ended her set, she left her seat and left for the exit.

"And don't call me sweetheart! You know I hate that!"  
~

The cool breeze welcomed her when she stepped out. , and suddenly felt herself slam back against the State House as the shock finally started to set in. Completely drowning out her surroundings. A simple coping method. This meant she wouldn't take notice to the entrance reopening and closing, just ignoring the searing pain within her skull from the impact, and allowing her legs to give out; she slid to the ground, Not even paying attention to the footsteps that followed, or that the said footsteps stopped right in front of her.

"Hey."

"Jesus,-!" Shelby recoiled, quickly pressing herself more to the building and gripping the pistol in her holster.

"So- uh.." His hands were held up in defense and through his sunglasses, she could see him glancing back and forth between her hand and to back up to her, clearly fazed by her reaction. " You wouldn't happen to have a Geiger counter by any chance, would you..?"


	2. 01

"So what- you're stalking me now?"

"Now I wasn't necessarily stalking you, per' say. You just happened to be in the same place at the same time."

"Pardon me, but I didn't exactly get the memo that the definition was changed!" Shelby stooped in her tracks, turning her head in spite of a painful whiplash to glare daggers at the man. Hissing the last part through clenched teeth.

"Plus, you're doing it right now! Following me around like you're some lost puppy," She angrily waved her arms before crossing them, feeling the rounds of her cheeks and the tips of her ears flush a darker red from frustration.

"- What are you even doing here?! I don't see you for more than half a year and you expect me to believe you were at the Third Rail for god knows what was a coincidence?"

"..That was the point, yeah."

Shelby threw her arms up in defeat and turned around, sending the both of them back on their way to the front doors of the Old State House. Hancock had offered her a place to crash for the night so she wouldn't have to walk all the way back to Diamond City on her own. Made her thankful that Nick always had her pack an extra pair of pajamas in her bag just in case she went out somewhere and had to crash. Gonna be absolute hell though; explaining to Ellie why she went to GoodNeighbor in the first place.

Whatever. She just wanted to sleep.-

"What the-?!" Shelby recoiled back and struggled to balance herself back on her worn heels.

Deacon set himself right in front of her; blocking any advances she tried to make to move past him. Holding his hands in front of him in a desperate way to get her to listen. "Please- and I promise I'll be out of your hair, One minute of your time. That's all I ask."

"...So you were following me."

Deacon gave her a pleading look like a response, urging her further. "Fine," Shelby spoke in a calmer tone of voice and closed her eyes before leaning against the cold bricks of the building. "You have my full attention for one minute. After that? I'm yelling."

"Much appreciated, thank you." He mimicked her movements, taking up comfortably right next to her. "I know that you've been touring for us- despite the incident and keeping it hidden from your old man. Which I can understand, we both know how Valentine can be when he doesn't like something."

"No shit."

"But- It's also pretty obvious of how much you want to be with the "Cool Kids". So I'll make you a deal" he lowered his volume. "I have a job. Too big for me. Just perfect for the two of us. We help each other out, turn a few heads and then Dez invites you to the fold. Piece of cake, right?"

Shelby skeptically scratched the back of her neck and bit the corner of her lip together in thought. "What's the catch?"

"Well.." He motioned his head in a way that seemed like he was weighing his decisions. "There isn't really a catch. Think of this as more of a test than a sudden stroke of trust. I'll be monitoring your every action, every decision you make; every time you breathe, every time you blink.-"

"Get to the point, please."

"I've seen how you are in battle. Quick on your feet and a hell of a shot. Exactly the type we want in our outfit. But while you already have my vote that's not enough to win over everyone's else's; considering your uh..age. You'd be the youngest agent we'd ever recruited. Which causes some people to doubt. So we test the water, see what you're capable of."

Shelby blankly stared at him, not knowing whether to feel complimented or creeped out that he had been shadowing her longer than she had previously thought. "..I dunno, Deacon."

"Look." He told her, "Malone's group is dangerous. this is proven by the sheer fact that Valentine was taken almost immediately after he showed up- and you, my little friend are like..a miniature version of him. Only with a short fuse and a full head of hair. What makes you think they won't do the same thing to you? Admit it...

You need our help as much as we need yours."

He had a point. It wasn't like she could show up on Skinny's doorstep.- Pull out the good ol' pouty lip and politely ask for him to release Nick. At least- not without getting shot.. or better yet, having to trade a kidney--

"Shelby?"

Shelby's head whirled towards the feminine voice calling her, seeing a very familiar woman round the corner. She had to double though because the moment she turned back around, she found that Deacon had completely disappeared without a trace.

Fahrenheit had caught up to her by this time, moving a hand in front of her view to snap her out of whatever had racked her confused stiff. "You take a little too much, kid?"

"Huh?"

Fahrenheit backed off a few feet, satisfied that she had gotten Shelby's attention. "Hancock wants to see you. Sent me to say you've been gone too long. Guy gets easily worried, since..you know."

Shelby slowly shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "..I know."

The mention of her predecessor was becoming the highlight of her night, and it made her sick to her stomach.

After a while, she reopened them. "I might just be exhausted," she yawned, offering the bodyguard a tired smile.

Maybe it would push away the certain probability that she had been talking to herself for the last minute. God forbid it was a hallucination...She began to believe it.

...Until she suddenly froze as soon as she put her frostbitten hands into the pockets of her coat and pulled out the item halfway. Shelby pinched a small piece of paper between her thumb and pointer finger. Reading enough wording to roll her eyes and mutter a curse:

"One minute, as promised. Come meet me tomorrow if you make up your mind, I'll be under the ruined highway near Lexington. - D"

"Yeah.. that's totally not cryptic.." A slight mumble.

"Think the two weeks worth of sleep deprivation is finally catching up to bite me in the ass?" Shelby continued while shoving crumbled the small paper back into her coat before the other woman could question it.

"Highly, That's another reason he made me hunt you down."

" 'Course it was."

Fahrenheit snorted and smacked Shelby's arm, nudging her toward the door with a slight smirk and furrowed brows, "All right, smartass Inside."

Their laughter was all that came throughout the town of GoodNeighbor. Ending in the click of a door being shut and locked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! You survived the first, technically second chapter! Good for you! On that note I want to announce that I'll be taking a two week break from writing seeing as Finals are coming up and thus marks preparation into my final year of Highschool. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking around! You can find me on Instagram or Tumblr both of which are : bluejaep


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